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I'm having trouble with my proto 2000 HO locomotive. When I run the locomotive with other locomotives together the motor on the locomotive is stop and go. I also notice that it take a Higher voltage just to get the locomotive to move. I have seen other threads on the forum but I do not see any info regarding this issue. Does anyone have any information?
The stop and go issue sounds like an electrical contact issue. Intermittent breaks in the supply due to a loose wire somewhere in the locomotive or possibly dirty wheels or dirty track.
As far as slowness, I believe that is a characteristic of the earlier runs of the P2K GP38-2, due to the design of the light board, I believe. They are slow. If you are handy, try swapping a light board from another brand of locomotive to see if it helps with speed.
Do you have the same brand decoders in all the locos? Are they the new ones? I had issues with two different types of older decoders doing the same thing. I changed all the decoders to the same brand and everything worked fine but check your wheels and wires first.
I sent a P2K GP38-2 to Walthers for repair because it wouldn't even run. Turns out the motor was drawing close to 2 amps. They replaced the motor (under warranty as I bought it from a Walthers authorized vendor and had a receipt proving date of purchase) and the engine runs fine now.
I think there may have been a few bad motors in the batch. I have another one with the same problem (but I bought it used so it's not under warranty for replacement)
Don't know what it is, but for some reason, P2K, whether from LL or the new ones from Walthers, have had more motor problems than any other brand I know of. First the high amp motors were found in the E and PA series, and now, this is another case of another high amp motor making its way into a model.
I wonder how prevalent this problem really is. How many folks have had this problem but haven't ever reported it on this board or others???
